Croatan whips Southwest in wrestling, moves close to showdown with Dixon

Wednesday

Jan 11, 2017 at 4:45 AM

Rick Scoppe Daily News Staff jdnsports

BROAD CREEK | Croatan continued marching to what looks like another showdown against Dixon for the East Central 2-A Conference regular-season title with a workmanlike 67-8 victory Tuesday night over Southwest.

Along with four forfeits by the Stallions (8-15, 1-3), the Cougars had five first-period pins as well as a second-period pin and a major decision in running their record to 19-4 and 3-0 in the league.

Croatan travels to East Duplin on Jan. 20 before closing out ECC regular-season action Jan. 24 at Dixon (14-4, 2-0), which faces North Brunswick on Friday and Northside on Jan. 20.

“It’s good,” Croatan coach David Perry said. “It sets up the showdown with Dixon. So that’s the job to get through the other four and get to Dixon and battle it out.”

Croatan and Dixon have tied for the regular-season league title two of the last three years, with Dixon winning it outright in 2015.

The Cougars, who were missing 138-pounder Andrew Litz (8-12), raced to an 18-0 lead without breaking a sweat thanks to three forfeits by the Stallions at 106, 113 and 120. But then came the match of the night at 126 between Croatan’s Clay Sanders, who had wrestled at that weight all year, and Jahbreeze Medina-Mack, who had been at 132 or 138.

Sanders jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Medina-Mack tied it in the second period. Neither wrestler scored again in regulation, forcing overtime. Sanders (25-11) won with a takedown with 21.7 seconds left in the one-minute OT. Medina-Mack fell to 15-13.

“He gave Clay a good match,” Perry said. “But he (Sanders) got sloppy on his granby (reversal roll). He should have got points. It was actually his move that he gave him the points. Medina-Mack kind of held him there for a minute and he got two back (points). It should put him up 7-0 instead it put it tied 2-2.”

Sanders said he wasn’t “really prepared” for Medina-Mack to wrestle down.

“He gave a good match,” Sanders said. “Hopefully, I’ll see him at conference, too. I think I could have wrestled better. I wasn’t working hard enough to get off the bottom. Neutral, I feel like I wrestled pretty good.”

And that’s how he won in OT, which started in a neutral position with both wrestlers standing. After a missed shot at a takedown, Sanders finally found an opening with time ticking down.

“I was pretty tired, desperation I guess,” he said. “It’s not often you go into overtime. It’s a lot of pressure. You’ve just got to get it done.”

With their forfeits, the Stallions gave Croatan 24 points. Southwest was also missing two starters, including 160-pounder Josh Soliz (19-4) and 145-pounder Darious Whitfield (8-8).

Southwest won just two weight classes. Thomas Horsley (15-7) claimed a tech fall at 132 and freshman Tyler Profitt (14-6) earned an 8-2 decision at 145. SWO coach Nathaniel Alexander also liked what he saw early from Dexter Bazer, a senior but first-year wrestler who led early against Ryan Perry at 170 before being pinned in the second period.

“We have some guns out there,” Alexander said. “Tyler Profitt’s a freshman. He doesn’t look like a freshman out there. (Bazer) gave Perry a good run for his money. That first period Perry wasn’t quite sure what he had on his hands. He kind of gave him a couple good scares.

“I think we’re more competitive than the score shows. As the season goes on and more guys fill in the weight classes they’re supposed to be in and we kind gel we’re going to be more competitive. The great news is that Dexter is the only one who’s graduating.

“So next year we’re coming back fully loaded. So hopefully I can put more points on the board against (Croatan).”